(Closed) Cruise ship wedding!

I’m looking for a happy medium with my budget-conscience family and fiance. Has anyone ever gotten married on a cruise ship? If so, how was your experience?

My wedding budget was $10,000, but due to reservations from everyone but me, I’m looking to go cheaper. I can have a wedding on a cruise ship for $2,000.00 This includes VIP check in for myself, fiance and guests, private wedding ceremony, bridal bouquet, groom’s boutonniere, hour and thirty minute open bar with hors d’ouevres for 20 people, ice carving (Not real sure I want that), tiered wedding cake, champagne glasses and photographer.

Downside…? My guests would be responsible for their cruise tickets, maybe we could pay half….Only very, very close friends and family would be invited. Honest opinions on if you would be tempted to do this?

We were going to do the cruise ship wedding as my brother and FI’s dad and half siblings live in Florida (that would have been theport we left from). I think it’s great. Inexpensive, fun and your honeymoon is right there! If people can’t afford it, that’s what sometimes happens when you have a destination wedding. I say go for it if it’s what you really want!

MissHarleyBlue: Carnival is the only cruise line we go on. We’ve found them to be very friendly and accommodating! That is the cruise line I’ve been pricing this morning. I had read where people could attend the wedding but not have to take the cruise. I read that the wedding would be at 1 pm… thats apparently the time to do them. I think my concern is getting to the cruise that day along with the stress of getting ready for the ceremony. I’m currently looking through old weddingbee boards to see if I can find some pictures of someone getting married on a cruise.

I was a guest at a cruise wedding last fall (Carnival). My SO and I decided not to stay for the cruise (too expensive). Probably won’t do that again. It wasn’t a good experience:

– To get to the port we had to take a shuttle bus. Cheaper than parking at the port or taking a taxi but round trip for the two of us was still $60. Because the shuttle makes other stops we had to leave super early (wedding at 1:00, left hotel at 8:30 am and hotel was only 8 miles from port). Even worse on the return trip when it took almost 90 minutes to get to the hotel with all the stops

-Even with the “VIP” access as part of the bridal package, it took 2 hours to go through security and be cleared to board. At least half of that was just sitting around waiting but we did not have the option of showing up later, so we pretty much wasted half of a Saturday morning just sitting in a hot, noisy boarding area with like 400 other people (they had multiple weddings)

-Once on board we had about 90 minutes to kill and could not buy any food or drinks because the cruise ships do not take cash/credit cards, only the cruise ship on board spending card, which we did not have because we were not cruising. So we sat and sat some more and finally found a friend who was cruising to buy us a drink. This probably pissed me off more than anything because we had literally nothing we could do to pass the time And couldn’t buy anything anywhere.

-Ceremony was a little generic and mass produced, just seemed very cookie cutter (it was nice but I didn’t think my friends had much influence over the content)

-Reception was extremely short. After the ceremony we had another 30 minutes to kill and begged the same friend to buy us another drink. The reception itself was very nice but only had appetizer buffet since there was not enough time to do a proper meal (at this point it was going on 2:00 and no one had had lunch), so we were freakin starved. There wasn’t enough time to make a proper meal from the buffet and no one wanted to be “that guy” with th giant pile of food while everyone else is stuck in line behind you. We left hungry and cranky when we got the instruction to leave. There was probably only 45 minutes between first dance and last dance, no cake cutting ceremony, no speeches, really nothing and I felt really bad for the couple because even though they really tried to, they weren’t able to greet every guest— simply not enough time.

-The couple could not have extended the reception because there is a mandatory evacuation drill at 3:00 and all non-sailing passengers have to be gone before that, and they could not start earlier because US Customs don’t let you on the ship sooner.

I heard the people who actually did th cruise had fun, but even they thought there was a lot of sitting around and not enough time to do an actual reception. So from a guest point of view it really is a sucky experience.

woobie8709: We’re thinking about doing this. We’re sending out feelers to our friends to see if they would be interested in cruising with us. I would suggest doing the same. Will they be interested in coming? Will they be able to come? Will they be able to afford it? All good questions to consider with your guests.

woobie8709: it still was a lovely wedding. At the end of the day, it’s sharing and celebrating love that’s the most important thing. But it was incredibly unfriendly/not gracious to the guests, especially the non-cruisers. I really think cruise ships make bad venues from a guest’s perspective. Even the people staying for the cruise were struggling to haul their baggage dressed up in wedding clothes (there’s no guarantee that you’ll actually be able to get into your room to change in time for the wedding) and trying to smuggle in booze due to the onboard pricing. Lots of discussion (not out right complaints though) over the pricing for the cruise, like a family of four spending $2500 for two lower-deck interior rooms once all the food/drinks packages were added in, before excursions.

Horseradish: We smuggled some on during our last cruise. 🙂 But really the drinks were not badly priced during our cruise. I was reading on weddingwire.com where someone had said to come ready because you may not get to your room before. From a guest perspective do you think it would be rude not to have anybody to the actual wedding that is not cruising? We would have another get together for those not able to attend.

woobie8709: well you won’t know who will do the cruise till you invite them, and it’s not cool in my book to take the invite back if people prefer not to cruise or to tell them they can only come to the wedding if they cruise. Not everyone can afford a cruise, and not everyone has the time off of work, so you’d basically be drawing your guest list based on who has money and vacation. That doesnt sit well with me.

Horseradish: Would it be ok to word it on the invite something to the affect of “If you are not able to cruise with us, there will be a party to celebrate at such and such time.”? I’ve only been to two weddings and both were church weddings so I’m just trying to figure out the politically correct way to word it on an invite. I really appreciate your ideas!

woobie8709: it’s not to my tastes at all, but you’ll probably get lots of opinions. I would imagine if you invited 20 people to go on a cruise with you for no occasion, you might get 5 or 7 that like cruises, have the time, have the money, and have no other vacation plans…. Invite them to a cruise wedding and your Accept rate is going to double. Because it’s a wedding, people feel it’s more important to go than for a random occasion. So it puts guests in an awkward situation and offering a second reception later doesnt make it easier on them (or cheaper for you— if you’re doing this all to try to save money then why not have a more casual reception and just go on a cruise for your honeymoon?).